nine to the inch: piano roll perforators in Buffalo, New York
Piano roll perforators
We cut piano rolls in Buffalo, New York: 88-note, 11¼ inches wide, holes nine to the inch. That is the size agreed in this city in 1908, so a roll from us plays on any player piano built to it.
On the perforator: Study No. 1, a canon in four tempi. One foot of paper, 160 holes.
- Cut
- Under the punch
- Pencil, still to cut
- Wrong hole, taped
Cutting to order:
[email protected]
(716) 555-0108
Buffalo, N.Y.
2026.
( 01 ) The standard
On 10 December 1908 the makers of player pianos met in Buffalo and agreed one roll: 11¼ inches wide, 88 holes at nine to the inch. Every roll we cut is still that roll.
286 mm, with margins left at both edges for later inventions.
88 tracks, one for each key. The older 65-note rolls had six to the inch.
A roll's tempo marking is its speed: seventy means seven feet of paper a minute.
On the bench
( 05 )Prelude in C
J. S. Bach · 1722 · N° 101Arpeggios cut as a staircase of short holes over two held notes. Nineteen bars are eight feet of paper.
Für Elise
L. van Beethoven · 1810 · N° 102The opening turn is two neighbouring tracks a ninth of an inch apart; the left hand answers far below.
Moonlight Sonata, I
L. van Beethoven · 1801 · N° 103Left-hand octaves as long chains twelve tracks apart, triplets climbing in threes above them.
Gymnopédie No. 1
E. Satie · 1888 · N° 104Long, slow notes cut as chains of punches. The F sharp that ends the first phrase is a foot of paper.
Study No. 1
Nine to the Inch · 2026 · N° 105Our own: one line in four voices at the speeds 3 : 4 : 5 : 6, arriving on the last note together.
How a roll is cut
Score
Notes as printed: a pitch and a length each. We start from the published score or your MIDI file.
- 01Score
- 02Pencil
- 03Stencil
- 04Copies
- 05Tracker bar
01Score
Notes as printed: a pitch and a length each. We start from the published score or your MIDI file.
02Pencil
Each note is marked on the master stencil in pencil, on its own track, nine tracks to the inch.
03Stencil
The perforator cuts the master. Short notes are single slots; long ones are chains of overlapping punches.
04Copies
Copies are cut from the master stencil five sheets at a time, then trimmed to 11¼ inches and spooled.
05Tracker bar
Each roll plays through once before it ships. A hole sounds while it is open over the tracker bar.
What it costs
Recut from our mastersAny roll on the bench, with label, leader and spool
$58a roll3 weeksNew musicFrom your score or MIDI file
$95set-up, then $6 a foot4 to 6 weeksRepairsTears, edges, a new leader and tab
$18and up1 weekScan to MIDIEvery hole of your roll as a MIDI file
$35a roll1 week
US dollars, shipping extra. Rolls travel spooled, in a tube.
Before you order
If your player takes 88-note rolls, yes: we cut to the standard agreed in Buffalo in 1908, 11¼ inches wide with holes nine to the inch. The older 65-note format was obsolete by about 1910; we cut 65-note rolls on request, ask first.
Seven feet of paper a minute at the start of the roll. Set the tempo lever to the number printed on the leader. The take-up spool fattens as it fills, so every roll speeds up a little towards its end; rolls were always recorded that way too.
Yes, it is what a roll does best. Conlon Nancarrow punched canons whose voices run at the ratio e : π. Send the MIDI file; we check for holes the paper cannot take, too close together or too long, before we mark the master.
Not yet. Reproducing rolls carry expression holes near the edges in each system's own code. We cut standard 88-note rolls, which generally play on reproducing pianos too, without the expression.
Wind it tight, put it in a tube and write on the order how many feet from the leader the tear is. Repairs take a week and come back on a new spool if the old one is cracked.
Each with its leader, every hole of its first bars and the numbers that matter: tempo, length, price.